How Arch Manning's high school coach handles star quarterback's recruitment, future plans
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Isidore Newman. It is a private school.
When Nelson Stewart started coaching at Isidore Newman, he didn’t know that 20 years later his football team would be on ESPN.
From the time he began as an assistant coach at the 1,200-student private school in New Orleans, Newman has been a consistent playoff team making runs, but never playing in the state title. It wasn’t in the head coaching contract that in addition to coaching the Greenie football team, he’d also take hundreds of calls a week from college coaches and national reporters.
But when you’re coaching the No. 1 recruit in the country, Stewart learned quickly he had to stay organized and always be on watch.
Every day, coaches and reporters call Stewart inquiring about his starting quarterback — Arch Manning.
STAY UP-T0-DATE: Subscribe to our Sports newsletter now!
"I’ve certainly never seen anything like it. It’s surreal, but it’s my job," Stewart said to the Athens Banner-Herald, part of the Paste BN Network. "I try as a coach not to get too caught up in it about how many (college coaches) come through. It’s staggering and unique and the traffic and coverage is different. But I try to focus on the right things and I’m blessed that he’s such a good kid."
Manning is the No. 1 quarterback in the 2023 class, the No. 1 overall recruit and can go to whatever school he wants. Much of that was determined his freshman year of high school. His size, athleticism and quarterback ability has only gotten better as he’s continued through Stewart’s program.
Coming from a Hall of Fame lineage of quarterbacks, Arch was always going to be good at playing the position.
But what sets him apart from other top talent quarterbacks is how much Manning wants to continue to learn and grow off the field.
"You don’t have many high schoolers throw the ball 70 yards, but he’s somebody that has, I think naturally, has mechanics and can just fire it," Stewart said. "He’s a real inquisitive learner. He loves Zoom meetings, taking notes and learning about offense. He enjoys the history of football and quarterbacking.
"Quarterbacks have little nuances — this guy is a pro guy, this one is a spread guy — Arch is kind of an everything guy," Stewart continued. "He’s got so many intangibles that I think really set him apart."
Stewart has known Manning since the star quarterback was born. He’s seen him grow from a small boy running around, sharing the last names of his uncles — Eli and Peyton — into a high schooler that’s still running around, enjoying life.
When the coach talked about who Arch is away from football, he continually referenced his humility and authenticity.
And that’s why Stewart takes on the responsibility of shielding him from the “barrage” of the recruitment world.
"I think it’s unlike anything you’re seeing nationally right now," Stewart said. "If he was doing all the requests and gave every interview requested of him, it’d be impossible, so I just try to take on as much of it as I can. Hopefully, I give the family’s narrative on it and just try to do things the right way to put him in the best possible position. Not just for success in college, but also so he can have a great senior football season to really finish his career the right way."
When a coach comes to Stewart requesting to speak with Manning, that coach goes through a sort of screening process. Stewart first makes sure the Mannings know which schools are asking about Arch and gauges the interest in that program. Then Stewart sits down with the coach and talks about the quarterback and learns some football.
By teaching five classes a day and coaching, Stewart finds time to block out those windows.
It’s an organized system, but isn’t perfect, he said.
"The other day in my office, I had to put Mississippi State, Louisiana Tech, Princeton, Louisville, Georgia Tech and UVA all together at the same time," Stewart said. "I’d never in a million years thought we’d get to do that. We were out of space and out of time."
Manning’s recruitment began before he’d ever thrown a ball in a high school game, but Stewart said he’s handled it well. He doesn’t have a Twitter account. His Instagram is private. His actions are intentional. His visits are well planned out beforehand.
There’s no reason to believe that will change in this last year of Arch being a high school football player.
"We’re going to go through and let everyone come through and recruit, talk to people just to gauge interest and then in the spring, he’s going to go and see some practices," Stewart said. "Really look at (the programs) and then focus on the team in the summer and if needed into fall. This isn’t asking somebody on a date. It’s an engagement to do something important. I assure you, once he does (commit somewhere), he’s going to do it. There aren’t going to be hat pulls or flips or things like that."
Coaches continue to flock to New Orleans to see Manning, including Georgia's Kirby Smart and Alabama's Nick Saban stopping to see him play basketball earlier this month. Manning took visits to Athens, Austin, Clemson, Oxford and Tuscaloosa on game days during the 2021 season.
But until he makes a commitment and signs to play college football wherever he ends up at, there’s still a final season of high school football to prepare for.
Stewart feels there’s still room for improvement for his phenom quarterback. He wants to have more explosive plays, get more comfortable with an uptempo and tempo variation on offense and just see the final product of the complexity and layers of the offense.
And he wants Arch to have fun.
"We’re not playing a national schedule," Stewart said. "We’re playing 10 regular season games against great local competition. I’m really not concerned if anything is televised. There are his buddies and a majority of those guys won’t be playing football after high school, December. It’s amazing when I look at someone like Peyton, where his core group of friends are guys he played with in high school. I think those times are very important and he just savors the moment."
Follow McClain Baxley on Twitter at @mcclainbaxley.